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​Entrepreneurs and business owners share a common trait, time, and on the road to success we could all do with more of it. With too much to do and not enough time to do it in, tasks get dropped and the time sensitive tasks get done before the important or strategic tasks, giving you the feeling that you are working hard but not progressing fast enough.

The solution to this is for you to work on your high value, important tasks and work ‘on your business’ and to delegate all of the lower value tasks, i.e. working ‘in your business’.

The most cost effective way of delegating your low value tasks, the administrative internet-based tasks, is to hire a Virtual Assistant (VA). By doing this you can get your administrative tasks up to date and achieve more internet research and traffic to your website.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant is something a lot of entrepreneurs and small business owners are doing in order to get the help they need to scale, at an affordable price. The following are our top three tips when it comes to hiring your VA.

“Do what you do best, and outsource the rest” – Peter Drucker

Tip 1: Improve your Business To-Do ListFirst things first, you need to know what you are currently doing, should be doing and want to be doing so you can prioritise and categorise. Monitor your weekly tasks and to-do list (to capture all you are doing and what you should be doing), write them down and categorise between:

Do - Must do/high value tasks for the success of your business. These are the tasks that are of high importance to the business and not necessarily the urgent tasks.

Manage - These are the tasks that could be done by someone else with management oversight.

Leverage -These are the low value tasks that you can give to your VA or completely outsource.

Tip 2: Create a detailed Job DescriptionCreate a detailed job description, based on the Leverage and Manage tasks, that allows your new VA to get straight to work, increasing business productivity and freeing up your time. Remember to include KPIs to measure your VAs performance against and link to as many business process documents and training videos as possible. You can also summarise job description to create an inviting job advert to attract the best applicants.

Tip 3: Systemise ApplicationsIn order to save you time in the hiring process, aim to systemise as much of the application process as possible. Use tools such as Google Suite to create automatic email replies and Google forms for applicants to complete. Then export applicants answers into a Google sheet for easy review and shortlisting. Set up times for interviews via Skype, let your VAs book the times and then conduct your interviews on your pre-prepared question set.

The key to hiring successful Virtual Assistants all comes in the prep work. You need to invest time in creating detailed process documents, job descriptions and procedures in order for the right people to apply for the role and for them to get straight in to the job.

For a more detailed process of hiring Virtual Assistants including all the template documents you need, check out The VIVA Club at bit.ly/thevivaclub

We hope you have found these tips useful and are able to use them to improve your business and investments. Don’t miss out on future tips - subscribe to Turner Invest newsletter on turnerinvest.co.uk and follow us on social media.

Thanks, Turner InvestEmpowering People to Live the Life of Their Dreams